A man developed a passionate love for the music of Johnny Cash after being implanted with a brain stimulation device. The unique story is told in a case report in the Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience journal, published on the 6th May.

The authors, Mariska Mantione and colleagues, describe the case of “Mr. B”, a 58 year old Dutch man who had suffered from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety since the age of 13.

Mr. B. reported he felt very confident, calm and assertive and he started to call himself “Mr. B. II”, the new and improved version of himself.

But it wasn’t just his symptoms that changed; his musical taste did too. Previously Mr B had been quite fond of the Rolling Stones, but he wasn’t really a big music lover. However,

…a half year after DBS surgery, Mr. B. stated that he was turning into a Johnny Cash fan. He had been listening to the radio, when he coincidentally heard “Ring of Fire” of the Country and Western singer and experienced that he was deeply affected by the song. Mr. B. started to listen to more songs of Johnny Cash and noticed that he was deeply moved by the raw and low-pitched voice of the singer

Mr. B. reported that he felt good following treatment with DBS and that the songs of Johnny Cash made him feel even better. From this moment on, Mr. B. kept listening simply and solely to Johnny Cash and bought all his CD’s and DVD’s… From the first time Mr. B. heard a Johnny Cash song, [all other music] has been banned.

However, this remarkable Cash-omania apparently vanished on occasions when the DBS stimulation turned off:

His former musical taste reoccurred immediately when stimulation was interrupted due to battery depletion, suggesting a direct causal link between musical preference and stimulation of the accumbens.

What does this mean? It’s a fascinating case, but hard to make sense of. The most direct interpretation would be that stimulation of the accumbens directly made Mr B more receptive to enjoying and becoming a fan of music.

The accumbens is involved in pleasure and motivation so this is plausible, but it begs the question, why Johnny Cash rather than any other musician? Can the specific object of Mr B’s new preference be explained, or is it just one of those inexplicable quirks of human life?

Then again, who’s to say that the nucleus accumbens stimulation was directly responsible for the Cash preference? Perhaps it was the sense of a new perspective on life, secondary to his symptom improvement, that was crucial. Maybe any effective OCD treatment would have had the same consequence? Against this possibility, Mantione and colleagues note that the preference seemed to be contingent on the continuing accumbens stimulation, but this is essentially an anecdote, not a rigorous blinded discontinuation trial.

Everything about this is weird. Surely someone being freed from the horribleness of OCD, which is not remotely like portrayed in TV shows, is what’s interesting. (For real OCD see The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Washing.) The only relevance of the music thing is the scary possibility it’s become a new OCD compulsion. Which would mean the procedure didn’t work. Or worked equivocally. This is all cute side effect and zero real person.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/ Neuroskeptic

Indeed. The authors considered the possibility that he’d swapped one kind of OCD for another. But they say…

“One may, of course, argue that during stimulation the patient developed a new kind of obsession and compulsion while his former obsessions of fear for uncertainty and illogical things declined. His preference for Johnny Cash, however, does not match the definition of obsessions or compulsions. Listening to Johnny Cash is pleasurable and not preceded by anxiety, nor is discomfort provoked when the patient is prevented from listening. The patient does not feel obsessed with Johnny Cash, nor compelled to listen and his behavior does not result in reduction of anxiety or tension.”

Stannis

Nail on head.

Christian camlin

He just went from one form of OCD to another though he might have felt better somewhat.

Reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live skit where they claimed the Voyager deep-space probe — famously carrying an LP record encoded with popular music and other Earth sounds — had returned proof of alien intelligence, in the form of a 4-word message: ‘Send More Chuck Berry’.

Why does it matter whether he switched from one obsession to another after DBS? DBS, as evidenced by the return to previous obsessions following DBS battery failure, appears to have caused this transition. Says a lot about free will IMO.

And if DBS is capable of substituting a devastating obsession/ compulsion for one that is less so then this would be a clinical success.

I seem to recall reading that Joaquin Phoenix had brain stimulation so he could channel Johnny Cash in “Ring of Fire.” When the battery ran down, Phoenix announced his retirement from acting. Now that he has a Li-ion battery implant, he’s back to acting.

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Neuroskeptic is a British neuroscientist who takes a skeptical look at his own field, and beyond. His blog offers a look at the latest developments in neuroscience, psychiatry and psychology through a critical lens.